


Certified and Bonafide

by Moonsault, orphan_account



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Destiny, Humor, M/M, Romance, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 12:05:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonsault/pseuds/Moonsault, https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years ago, Colin Cassady's spooky Great-Aunt Brigid told him the words he'd know his true love by.  He's waiting to hear Enzo say them before he makes his move, but...what if 'Zo never gets around to it?  And what the heck kind of weird phrase is that, anyway?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Certified and Bonafide

_Thump. Thump. Thump._

Colin Cassady heard the sound as he walked into the gym and looked to the furthest ring to see Enzo Amore jump off the turnbuckle once more and land flat on his face. As Cass watched, Enzo stood up, climbed the turnbuckle again, jumped. Landed. _Thump._ It wasn’t a botch, he was just landing on his face over and over.

Cass raised his eyebrows and wandered over to lean on the ropes. “You’re getting good at that,” he said.

“Just you wait,” said Enzo, “I’m even better at landin’ on my ass.” His grin at Cass was lopsided, and there was a hint of bitterness behind it. 

“We only got here a few months ago,” Cass said as Enzo clambered up onto the turnbuckle again. “You can’t expect to be ready for broadcast matches for a while.”

Enzo jumped, his rat-tail streaming out behind him like a banner. _Thump._ “Can’t be afraid to fall on my face,” Enzo said as he rolled over. “Or my ass, for that matter.”

Cass was careful not to look too closely at said ass as Enzo climbed again. He already knew it was a quality ass, he didn’t have to re-affirm it _every_ time he saw Enzo.

Just a lot of them.

Cass climbed into the ring, which shook as Enzo came down on it again. “We’re gonna be great together,” Cass said.

Enzo was breathing a little hard, and Cass wondered how long he’d been practicing. His shirt was damp with sweat. “If they ever let us in a ring, we’ll show ‘em all,” he said with a grin. “Just give us a mic, let us talk! We’ll cut a promo they’ll never forget.” He stood up and climbed the turnbuckle again, jumped.

This time Cass caught him out of the air.

“Hey!” yelped Enzo as Cass swung him around. His arms went around Cass’s neck by instinct as he glared up at him. He smelled good--like clean sweat and Axe body spray, which Cass hadn’t thought smelled good until he met Enzo, that’s for sure. Now he had a hard time not just burying his face in Enzo’s damp shirt and breathing it in.

Enzo looked up at him and his smile went from mad to mischievous in a blink. He shifted his weight, wrapped his legs around Cass’s neck, and executed a decent headscissors takedown that left them both sprawled on the mat with Enzo on top of Cass. “You let me do that,” Enzo said.

“Nah, man, that was all you,” said Cass, and it was even mostly true. Not that he really minded lying there with Enzo’s thighs pressing against his sides, Enzo’s hands on his collarbone, the heels of his hands on cloth and his fingertips on Cass’s skin…

Enzo touched a finger to Cass’s nose and sprang to his feet, and the moment passed. “We gotta get to Full Sail,” Enzo said. “Cena’s gonna be there tonight--even if we don’t get to have a match, maybe we’ll get a chance to meet him, huh?”

As he pulled himself up, Cass hoped Enzo hadn’t been able to feel his breath going ragged under his weight. God, Cass wanted him. But was it meant to be? He couldn’t know. 

Enzo hadn’t said the right words yet.

* * *

_Fifteen Years Ago_

“I dunno, guys, maybe we shouldn’t bother her.”

“Oh come _on,_ Colin.” His cousin Maggie grabbed his hand. “It only works this one night of the year! Maybe she’ll pick me!”

“I hope so,” Colin said dutifully, letting himself be dragged along with his flock of cousins toward his great-aunt Brigid’s house. 

It was a Cassady family tradition, that great-aunt Brigid had the gift of prophecy on St. Brigid’s Eve, the day of the saint she was named after. So every year the family children would gather and wait to see if she would tell them the words by which they would know their soulmate. It sounded crazy, but three generations of Cassadys swore that indeed, the phrase Brigid gave them was one their future partner used at some point. “And then I just _knew_ ,” said Colin’s aunt Alice once, smiling at his uncle. “It just _clicked._ ” 

Colin thought this wasn’t very scientific, but he couldn’t argue with the fact that Aunt Alice and Uncle Sean seemed really happy together.

It was his first year there, and so he hung back feeling awkward as the other young teens gathered in Brigid’s parlor, handing her the cookies and coffee they’d brought. “Sometimes she doesn’t say anything at all,” Maggie had admitted earlier. “But it’s fun to go just in case.”

Great-Aunt Brigid smiled and chatted with each of the kids, nibbling on cookies. She seemed like just a normal old lady, Colin thought, and felt kind of let down. He was about to make his excuses and slip away when suddenly a voice cut through the babble and everyone felt silent.

 _”Colin,”_ said the voice, and Colin almost jumped out of skin to find Great-Aunt Brigid standing right in front of him. Her pale blue eyes had gone very dark, and her voice had been much deeper than before. Resonant. Kind of spooky.

“Colin,” she said again, and stepped forward, resting a hand on his heart. 

And then she said a phrase, and Colin felt it in his bones, even though at the time he had no idea what it meant. But it was his soulmate’s phrase, he knew it then.

And he knew that as of now, Enzo still hadn’t said it.

Oh, it was the kind of thing Enzo _might_ say, that’s for sure. Cass had even thought about cheating and trying to lead him into saying it, but...nah, that wouldn’t do. He wanted it to happen naturally, he wanted to hear Enzo say it himself, to feel that certainty spark into life in his heart. Because he _would_ sometime, right? Cass didn’t want to end up with anyone but Enzo, so Enzo would definitely say it soon.

Right?

The idea that someone else might say the phrase made Cass’s insides seem to curl up and curdle. He didn’t want to feel that connection with anyone else. It was Enzo, it was all Enzo, with his manic pop-eyed grin and his twitchy energy like a churning splashing sea, with depths hidden beneath it only Cass seemed to see. He was pretty sure Enzo felt the same way, but they didn’t seem quite able to make that first move, get over that first awkward moment. You wouldn’t think Enzo could ever be awkward that way, but all his cocky assurance seemed to be saved for people he was sure wouldn’t actually take him up on it. Like a peacock whose preening actually was meant to warn people off. With Cass, there was a...shyness, though it probably wouldn’t look like shyness to anyone who didn’t know Enzo really well. 

Cass watched the wrestlers who had matches that night bustle around Full Sail getting ready without seeing them, his mind on his mercurial, annoying, mesmerizing partner, and on that maddeningly elusive phrase Great-Aunt Brigid had given to him so many years ago.

For a long time it had just been gibberish, words with no meaning. Then once he had parsed them out, he was a medical student and couldn’t imagine he’d ever want to be with someone who talked like that. Just like he hadn’t liked Axe body spray, or leopard print, or tattoos, until he discovered all those things were irresistible when they were part of Enzo freaking Amore.

He looked at Enzo now, talking a mile a minute with a patient Bayley, his hands blurs in the air as he gestured, and realized: _fuck it_ , he wasn’t going to wait any more for some superstitious phrase to show up and point him to his One. He wanted _Enzo_ , not some imaginary soulmate.

 _Your fated beloved shall call themselves a certified G and a bonafide stud,_ Great-Aunt Brigid had said, her lilting Irish brogue turning the phrase even more ridiculous. Cass almost wanted to giggle now, remembering it. It was so ludicrous he was pretty much ready to decide he'd dreamed it all at this point, or misheard her, or _something._ Anyway, it didn't matter. It was time to put all of that away and focus on what he really wanted. And what he really wanted was--

“Amore? Enzo Amore?”

Cass’s head snapped up at the sound of a familiar voice, and he saw Enzo goggling at John Cena. 

Cena stuck his hand out and Enzo took it, still blinking. “And I’m guessing this is Big Cass,” Cena said, turning to him.

“Yes, sir,” said Cass, shaking his hand.

“I’ve been told you’re two of the best in promo class,” said Cena.

“We sure are,” announced Enzo, saving Cass from having to be modest.

“Well,” said Cena. “Get your gear on and meet me in the ring in ten minutes. Be ready to introduce yourselves to the Full Sail audience for the first time.”

They stared at each other for a second when he was gone, then scrambled for their bags.

“What’ll you say?” Cass asked as they hustled down the corridor heading for the stage.

“I dunno,” Enzo said. His eyes were far away, in that place where he spun words out of nothing and made them sparkle. “Something brilliant. It’ll come to me. Follow my lead.”

They went down the ramp to the ring. The Full Sail crowd looked at them curiously, quietly. Cass shuffled his feet a little, but Enzo looked completely cool. Of course he did.

John Cena handed Enzo the mic and said “Tell us who you are.”

Enzo opened his mouth and said “My name is Enzo Amore…”

* * *

It became the story that Colin Cassady told to his own great-nephews and great-nieces, years in the future, the story that they gathered around to hear and never grew tired of.

The story of how Uncle Cass first kissed Uncle Zo right in the middle of the ring, in front of John Cena and the entire Full Sail audience.

**Author's Note:**

> John Cena really did get them their first in-ring promo, pretty much like it happens here! And hey, maybe the rest of it went like this too, and that's why there doesn't seem to be any video of that promo online...


End file.
